Only the Mets could bat someone in the cleanup spot Opening Day and then designate him for assignment less than two weeks later, but that’s what they did today with first baseman Mike Jacobs.
After starting Jacobs in six of the first eight games with Daniel Murphy on the disabled list the Mets dropped him from the 40-man roster this afternoon, calling up Tobi Stoner to have an extra arm in the bullpen following last night’s marathon win over the Cardinals.
Jacobs is an overrated, mediocre hitter with a terrible glove, so letting him go is perfectly reasonable. The funny part is that for the first two games of the season Jerry Manuel looked at his available options and decided putting Jacobs in between David Wright and Jason Bay gave the Mets their best chance to win.
And then, once he got over that insanity, Manuel batted Jacobs fifth behind Wright and Bay in four of the next six games.
Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com speculates that cutting Jacobs loose could signal the impending arrival of first base prospect Ike Davis, who began the season at Triple-A despite a very impressive spring training. Davis is 12-for-33 (.364) with two homers and three doubles in 10 games at Buffalo, but the 2008 first-round pick just turned 23 years old last month and has played a grand total of 65 games above Single-A.
Of course, no one has ever accused the Mets of having a plan, let alone sticking to one.

The Cardinals have officially signed outfielder Dexter Fowler to a five-year, $82.5 million contract. Fowler will also get a full no-trade clause.

The Cardinals gave Fowler a bigger deal than many speculated he’d get, as some reports predicted he’d get something in the $52-72 million range. His skills, however — he’s a fantastic leadoff hitter who plays a premium defensive position — definitely earned him some major dough. Fowler hit .276/.393/.447 with 13 homers, 48 RBI and 13 steals over 125 games in 2016 for the World Series champion Cubs.

For the Cardinals, this will allow Matt Carpenter to move down to the middle of the batting order and will shift Randal Grichuk to left field. It also takes a prime piece from the Cardinals’ biggest rival. For their part, earlier this offseason the Cubs signed former Cardinal center fielder Jon Jay. So that’s fun.

The Cardinals have always emphasized building from within. In the 2016-17 offseason, however, they may end up being one of the bigger free agent buyers. At least according to some informed speculation.

The Cardinals are already losing their first round pick due to the Fowler signing, so any other top free agent won’t cost them more than the money he’s owed. And as far as money goes, the Cardinals have a great deal of it, despite being a small market team. They have a billion dollar TV deal coming online and Matt Holliday and Jaime Garcia are off the payroll now. Spending big on a free agent or three would not cripple them or anything.

Encarnacion or Trumbo would be first baseman, which wold fly in the face of the Cards’ move of Matt Carpenter to first base (and, at least as far as Encarnacion goes, would fly in the face of good defense). Getting either of them would push Carpenter back to second, displacing Kolten Wong, or over to third, displacing Jhonny Peralta. If you’re going to do that, I’d say that Turner would make more sense, but what do I know?

Either way, the Cardinals may be entering a pretty interesting phase of their offseason now. And an unfamiliar one as, quite possibly, the top free agent buyer on the market.